Comments on: Agile perspective on US education

By: @mivesta

@mivesta — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:03:21 +0000

Very thought provoking essay. Thanks for the link. Discovery learning, Montessori learning incorporate some of these concepts (Think John Dewey) but have fallen by the wayside in favor of standardized tests and blaming bad teachers for all problems. I think the dojo concept is very cool.

If you repeal NCLB teachers everywhere will be partying in the streets LOL.

Students do still need to learn basic skills, such as literacy and basic math. But there should be a lot more hands on involvement of the kids, because they learn by doing and experiencing, not just being lectured at. (bad grammar but you get the point).

One disagreement: China is not a monolithic culture, though it appears this way perhaps to us. There are many different languages spoken, different ethnic groups, and different philosophies. Unfortunately one of the prevailing philosophies is Confucianism, which espouses respect for elders, and submission to authority (of a brutal communist government). However a cross current is provided by Daoism (tao), which espouses individualism and finding the Way, and promotes more creativity IMHO. OK I'll try not to write an essay right here!

Andrea Fuentes, Mivesta, via Namesake

By: Quora

Quora — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:16:31 +0000

Is the United States of America undergoing a great decline? Is it terminal? What would it take to recover from it?…

Decline relative to what – past years? neighboring countries? some absolute standard of morality? The more interesting part of this question is the part few have attempted to answer: what can we do to get back in the game? Here is the essence of the…

By: Towards a more useful high school experience

Towards a more useful high school experience — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:55:38 +0000

[...] develop these and most importantly, getting to a point of being excited to pursue whatever is next? We need to think of educating kids more like developing an athlete. I had this discussion with a good friend over lunch the other day: it seems like schooling for us [...]

By: Brandon Franklin

Brandon Franklin — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:45:59 +0000

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but the Montessori Method does many of the things you suggest above. I have had my kids in Montessori schools for 100% of their lives for this reason. Back in Seattle, it was private schools and therefore there was a financial premium for it (well worth it). Down here, my kids are Montessori homeschooled (which I realize is not an option for most people) as a result of trying to put them in a “Montessori” private school whose name I won’t mention which was nothing but a standardized-test factory school in disguise.

Anyway, my point is simply that we already know some of this stuff. It has been developed and evolved and tested and proven to work. One of the best programmers I ever knew had been Montessori schooled his entire life. I feel we need to start taking some of this existing knowledge and migrating the public school system to use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori

By: Greg Furmanek

Greg Furmanek — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:16:59 +0000

Fantastic article. I have been discussing some of these issues with my friends for years and we have arrived into similar conclusions. BTW, I think the Wiki Idea should also apply to all pieces of legislation Federal, State and Local.